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The Global Footprint of Jakarta's Tortoise And TRAFFIC SLOW AND STEADY: REPORT The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade MARCH 2018 John Morgan TRAFFIC Report: Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade 1 TRAFFIC REPORT TRAFFIC works closely with its founding organizations, IUCN and WWF, making a critical contribution to achievement of their conservation goals through a unique partnership. Reprod uction of material appearing in this report requires written permission from the publisher. The designations of geographical entities in this publication, and the presentation of the material, do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of TRAFFIC or its supporting organizations con cern ing the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The views of the authors expressed in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of TRAFFIC. Published by TRAFFIC. Southeast Asia Regional Office Suite 12A-01, Level 12A, Tower 1, Wisma AmFirst, Jalan Stadium SS 7/15, 47301 Kelana Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia Telephone : (603) 7880 3940 Fax : (603) 7882 0171 Copyright of material published in this report is vested in TRAFFIC. © TRAFFIC International 2018. ISBN no: 973-983-3393-80-0 UK Registered Charity No. 1076722. Suggested citation: Morgan, J. (2018). Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade. TRAFFIC, Southeast Asia Regional Office, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. Front cover photograph: Indian Star Tortoise Geochelone elegans Credit: © Chris R. Shepherd SLOW AND STEADY: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade John Morgan © Chris R. Shepherd Indian Star Tortoise Geochelone elegans © Pierre-yves Babelon | Dreamstime.com Radiated Tortoise Astrochelys radiata, endemic tortoise from Madagascar 4 TRAFFIC Report: Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations and Acronyms iv Acknowledgements iv Executive Summary vi Introduction 1 Methods 4 Results 6 Discussion 17 Conclusion 25 Recommendations 26 Appendices 28 References 33 TRAFFIC Report: Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade iii ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS BKSDA Balai Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam (Natural Resources Conservation Agency of Indonesia) CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction. Trade in specimens of these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances. (Article II, paragraph 1 of the Convention) Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, whose trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilization incompatible with their survival. (Article II, paragraph 2 of the Convention) Appendix III includes species whose exports are regulated in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for assistance in controlling the trade. (Article II, paragraph 3 of the Convention). A species does not have to be protected nationally for a country to put it in Appendix III IDR Indonesian Rupiah IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN SSC Red List Status; abbreviations used in Appendix 1 Critically Endangered (CR) Near Threatened (NT) Endangered (EN) Least Concern (LC) Vulnerable (VU) Not Evaluated (NE) KLHK GAKKUM Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup dan Kehutanan Republik Indonesia Penegakan Hukum (Law Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry) KSDAE Konservasi Sumber Daya Alam dan Ekosistem (Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystem) which was previously known as PHKA: Perlindungan Hutan dan Konservasi Alam (Forest Protection and Nature Conservation) LIPI Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Sciences: Indonesia’s Scientific Authority and Scientific Authority for CITES in Indonesia) NGO Non-governmental organization UNEP-WCMC United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre USD United States Dollar ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank the Turtle Conservancy, Darwin Initiative and an anonymous donor for generously supporting this work. I also thank Chris R. Shepherd, James Compton, Richard Thomas, Kanitha Krishnasamy, Paul Gibbons, Peter Paul van Dijk and Serene Chng and for reviewing this publication. iv TRAFFIC Report: Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade TRAFFIC Report: Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY TRAFFIC has been monitoring the trade in tortoises and freshwater turtles in Jakarta’s markets, exotic pet shops and at wild animal exhibitions (expos) for more than a decade. The two resulting TRAFFIC reports in 2007 and 2011 revealed that trade in Jakarta was widespread and that a large proportion consisted of illegal trade. Subsequently, TRAFFIC carried out additional surveys of tortoises and freshwater turtles in Jakarta in 2015. This four-month study, aimed to document the trade in Jakarta’s markets and pet shops to re-assess the situation in terms of illegal and unsustainable trade. These data were compared to previous TRAFFIC surveys to assess fluctuations and trends over the past decade. During weekly visits to seven locations (comprising three pet stores, two animal markets and two tropical fish markets), and single visits to three reptile expos, all known to be dealing in reptiles, a total of 4985 individuals of 65 different species of tortoise and freshwater turtles were recorded. As time spent in the shops was limited to avoid arousing suspicion, the identification of individual tortoise and freshwater turtle specimens over the survey period was not possible, and therefore the total number of individuals on sale could potentially be an overestimate. Nevertheless, numbers of individuals provided for any given week and the total number of species identified are accurate. Numbers of tortoises and freshwater turtles observed per week ranged from 92 to 983, with a mean of 383 individuals. Only 15 of the species observed were native to Indonesia, of which three were nationally protected. Non-native species made up 7% of individuals on sale, with species originating from Africa (6 species), Asia (), Europe (4), Madagascar (3), North America (16) and South America (7). Almost half (32 of 65) of the species observed on sale were categorized in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as being threatened with extinction. Nine species recorded (one of which was native) are currently listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendix I, where commercial international trade is prohibited, meaning at least eight of these species were likely to have been illegally imported. A further 27 species were listed in Appendix II and five in Appendix III. With 41 CITES-listed species observed during the surveys, 10 of which were native species and therefore may not appear in the United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) CITES Trade database because records there are restricted to international trade transactions, and ten of which do appear in the database, 21 species (involving 1758 animals) still remain unaccounted for, suggesting they were brought into the country through illegal means. However, as the UNEP-WCMC database requires a minimum of two years to be updated it is possible that the records are still incomplete. A retrospective analysis of discrepancies between CITES trade records and trade observations from the two previous TRAFFIC surveys in 2004 and 2010, reveal that at least 15 of these CITES-listed non- native species, involving a minimum of 727 animals, are suspected to have been imported illegally. The findings from the 2015 survey show that more species were found on sale than in the previous two TRAFFIC surveys, as well as more non-native, CITES-listed and threatened species. Numbers of native Indonesian species, both protected and non-protected, have stayed fairly constant since the 2010 survey (14 in 2010 and 15 in 2015). While this does not directly indicate larger volumes of species are being traded compared to previous years, the fact that more species were on display reveals either a change in preference among buyers for more novel species or better trade connections between Indonesian traders and a wider variety of suppliers worldwide. Clearly, efforts to curb the unsustainable and at times illegal trade in tortoises and freshwater turtles are either insufficient or ineffective. The high number of non-native species offered for sale is facilitated by a long-standing legislative problem in Indonesia, namely, Indonesian law does not regulate domestic trade in any non-native vi TRAFFIC Report: Slow and Steady: The Global Footprint of Jakarta’s Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Trade species, including those listed by CITES, once they have crossed the Custom’s boundary into Indonesian territory. This legal loophole hampers any law enforcement to counter illegal trade in these non-native species. Furthermore, existing laws covering native protected species are seldom enforced effectively, and traders are rarely prosecuted to the full extent possible under the law: thus illegal trade continues largely uninhibited given the lack of regulation and deterrence. The conservation of many
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